First up, Microsoft has tweaked Search, the second most popular activity in the browser (e-mail being number one). With the release of IE7, Microsoft added a search bar in the top right corner, playing catchup to match what every other browser already had. Now the company has stepped this up a little more by allowing search engine providers to add some more functionality straight from the search bar (for example, being able to see things like Live Search Suggestions or Google Suggest while typing into the search box). Furthermore, Microsoft has finally added in-line search to Internet Explorer, but unlike other browsers, the search bar appears at the top of the page (under the tabs) and not at the bottom.

The second thing worth looking at is tabs. IE7 finally gave Internet Explorer tabs, a feature that many had grown to expect with modern web browsers. While Microsoft did do a few things differently with tabs in IE, there really wasn't much to set it apart from other browsers. That has changed with IE8. Imagine you have two tabs open: Tab A and Tab B. All links from Tab A opened in new tabs will be color-coded the same, and all links opened from Tab B in tabs will be color-coded in another color. This feature is called Tab Groups, and I have to say that I'm quite eager to take this one out for a spin. For someone who often has over 20 tabs open, it really is a headache keeping track of everything. A tab group can be closed all at once, but it can also be reopened with two clicks: open up a new tab and choose the tab group on the slightly-revamped new tab page. If you don't want your browser looking like a rainbow, however, you can always disable the color-coding feature.

While performance and crash-recovery improvements are being implemented here and there, from my understanding, IE8 Beta 2 (and IE8 in general) is more about adding features that will allow users to get things done faster. According to Microsoft, out of all the top 20 things that people do in IE, the only thing that isn't navigation is the copy command. That means that in addition to actual browsing, users take a lot of time taking content from one page (or tab) and inputting in another. Web Slices and Activities were introduced in Beta 1 to help a little bit with getting some types of information faster (like the weather or directions to an address). Apart from tweaks here and there, the main things Microsoft changed in Beta 2 for these two features is giving developers the ability to add more active content in a Web Slice (such as a search box) and renaming Activities to Accelerators. While these features are nice, they will only really shine once web developers decide to support them.

Finally, let's have a look at security features. They might not be the most exciting ones out there, but are important nonetheless. You'll probably notice right away that in addition to the Page and Tools drop-down menus, there is a Safety drop-down menu in IE8 Beta 2. This is because Microsoft has added features such as InPrivate browsing, an IE8 mode which opens a new browser window (to keep the new session completely isolated) in which IE does not save Cookies, Temporary Internet Files, History, or other tracking data. InPrivate can automatically be used for all sites, or the user can choose which sites it wants to be tracked while browsing. A cross-site-scripting filter (which is on by default) has also been added, which strips off the extra JavaScript code added on to a URL that would normally be legitimate. In this way, the user can still use the website that he or she navigated to, but personal information is not given to the malicious user that sent the URL. Additionally, a new Smart Screen Filter, which builds on the phishing filter added in IE7, gives the user two options when he or she browses to a site Microsoft deems malicious: "Go to my homepage instead" and "Disregard and continue (not recommended)." The latter option can be switched off using a group policy setting.

IE8 is supposed to be released by the end of the year, leaving not much time to get the final version out the door. IE8 Beta 1 was released back in March in English, and later in April in Chinese and German. Where Beta 1 was primarily focused on web developers and designers, Microsoft has been saying over and over that Beta 2 is aimed at the end-user. Well, based on what I've seen so far, Microsoft wasn't messing around. Just cross your fingers and hope that Microsoft can get all the bugs ironed out this year.

Microsoft is feeling confident and is very interested in in-depth user feedback (more than just bug reports). According to IE Product Manager James Pratt, this beta release is ready for everybody to download. Nevertheless, it still has the beta tag, so don't be disappointed when things do break and smash, for they will break and smash.